Every spring it’s the same: the snow melts, the birds begin building their nests, the neighborhood children resume their outdoor play and the housing market blooms. Yes, among the budding trees and perennial sprouts you’ll notice “For Sale” signs popping up all over town. Read more

As you plan for your own and your family’s financial future, you may be considering the creation of a trust. Many estate plans utilize what is called a revocable living trust. During your life, you generally serve as Trustee of your revocable living trust and can either retitle your assets in the name of the trust during your life or you can use a “pour-over will” to direct your Personal Representative or Executor to transfer any individually owned assets at your passing to your trust. Read more

Income from Social Security­ benefits plays an incredibly important role for many Americans in retirement. In 2015, 85% of married couples and 84% of non-married persons aged 65 or older received Social Security benefits.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed on December 22, 2017 was the biggest rewrite of the tax code since 1986 and made sweeping changes to the individual and corporate tax system. While most taxpayers will benefit from the reduced tax rates and increased standard deductions, others may find they can no longer take advantage of certain itemized deductions on their 2018 tax return.

Tax season is officially upon us and with it comes the inevitable new wave of tax season identity fraud. Every year, thousands of people lose millions of dollars and their personal information to tax scams during tax season. As taxpayers become more sophisticated at spotting scams, so do the scammers. They use regular mail, telephone and email to scam taxpayers, tax professionals, and even HR and payroll departments through phishing attacks and malware.

One of the most important decisions to be made when designing your estate plan is who to name in the various fiduciary roles – trustee, personal representative, executor and agent. While a critical decision, it is often given significantly less thought than the design and distribution of your assets. Even a meticulously designed estate plan drafted by an accomplished estate planning attorney will fail to achieve its purpose if the Trustee selected fails to administer the trust properly. Read more

If you’re like many Americans, the recently passed tax reform and the continuation of the current bull market may have given you the confidence to dig a little deeper into your pockets for holiday spending. Newly released sales data showed retailer’s holiday sales increased 4.9% when compared to last year; the best holiday sales season since 2011.[1] While that may be good news for the retail sector that has seen several recent store closures, it’s probably not great news for the average consumer. Read more

After several last-minute changes, the Senate voted 51-49 in the early hours of Saturday morning[1] to pass their version of tax reform. Only one Republican, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, voted against the bill, concerned about the $1 trillion or more in budget deficits the plan is expected to create.[2] President Trump has been adamant about his desire to sign a final bill before Christmas. While we’re not quite there yet, the Senate’s vote Saturday morning crossed one potential roadblock and has made some form of tax reform by Christmas much more likely. Read more

Last Thursday House GOP leaders unveiled the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a tax plan that proposes a broad overhaul to the corporate and individual tax system, building from the framework announced in September by the White House and House GOP leaders. The TCJA proposes to create more jobs, grow paychecks and bring fairer taxes to American families.[1]Read more

Leaves changing colors and falling to the ground. Playoff baseball. Pumpkin spice everywhere. We can certainly tell fall is officially here. Fall is also the perfect time to consider an often overlooked yet extremely important aspect of cash flow planning in retirement – Medicare coverage. Read more

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